What’s delaying US midterm election calls in Mississippi and Alaska?

Ranked-choice voting may decide Alaska’s Senate outcome, while Mississippi’s race hangs on a knife’s edge.

US Senate candidate for Mississippi Scott Colom speaks to supporters on November 4, 2026, in Jackson, Mississippi [Rogelio V Solis / Getty Images via AP]

Democrats regained control of both chambers of the United States Congress in this year’s midterm elections, with a wave of victories that party leader Hakeem Jeffries likened to an “American tsunami”.

But as of Wednesday night, two US Senate races remain undecided.

list 1 of 4 Trump administration renews bid to block Alaska election results

list 2 of 4 Alaska’s two ‘Dan Sullivans’: How common is ballot stacking, does it work?

list 3 of 4 What is ranked-choice voting and how does it work in US elections?

list 4 of 4 When will we know the US midterm election results?

A cliffhanger in the southeastern state of Mississippi and a scandal-plagued Alaska race are the final Senate contests to be tallied.

As it stands, the Democrats will usher in the 120th Congress on January 3 with a majority of at least 54 seats in the 100-member Senate.

If they win both Mississippi and Alaska, they will need fewer Republican breakaways to avoid the filibuster, a means by which the minority party can indefinitely stall legislation in the chamber. Filibusters can be avoided with a 60-member vote.

So, why are Alaska’s and Mississippi’s Senate races still up in the air? Al Jazeera breaks it down with this brief explainer.

What’s the hold-up in Mississippi?

The Republican stronghold of Mississippi was an unlikely Senate battleground this year.

The last time the state voted for a Democratic president was in 1976. The last time it elected a Democrat to statewide office was more than a decade ago, in 2015.

But the race between incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, and her Democratic challenger, Scott Colom, proved tighter than expected.

The contest remains too close to call, with both candidates holding about 49 percent of the vote, according to The Associated Press news agency. Ninety-six percent of the ballots have been counted so far.

As of Wednesday night, Colom was leading Hyde-Smith by a razor-thin margin of 1,138 votes, with a few thousand provisional and mail-in absentee ballots left to be counted.

Provisional ballots, also called “affidavit ballots”, are supplied to voters whose eligibility is uncertain. This can happen when a voter fails to present the appropriate identification documents at their local polling precinct.

Mississippi allows 10 days for such votes to be processed. Mail-in ballots, meanwhile, have a window of five business days to be received after the election, according to state officials.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson counted roughly 3,600 mail-in ballots still to be tallied, along with an “unknown” number of affidavit ballots.

“Counties have 10 days from the date of the election to submit their certified results to our office, which is November 13,” Watson wrote.

In the event of a deadlock, Mississippi is the only state in the country with no formal provision that would automatically authorise a recount. The candidates would need a court order to request one.

When will we know Alaska’s results?

In the northwestern state of Alaska, the Senate race could take days or weeks to be called, owing to the state’s vast rural distances and its ranked-choice voting (RCV) system.

Democrat Mary Peltola leads incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan by a meagre 637 votes as of Wednesday night, according to The Associated Press.

The race has become one of the most closely watched in the country. Nearly a quarter of the votes remain uncounted.

In Alaska, ranked-choice ballots allow voters to number the candidates in their order of preference.

But the system can result in multiple vote counts. The initial count tallies the candidates who were ranked as voters’ top choice. If one of those candidates gets more than 50 percent of the vote, they win the election outright.

If none of the candidates passes the 50-percent threshold, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated, and a new round of vote-tallying commences. Supporters of the eliminated candidates see their votes redistributed to their second choice.

This process of elimination and recounting continues until one candidate ultimately wins a majority.

Alaska is one of only two states in the US to employ ranked choice voting for statewide elections, and critics blame the system for the slow nature of the vote tally.

According to Alaska’s Division of Elections, ranked choice results will not be published until 15 days after the election, on November 18.

The state is also under a microscope due to a controversy in its Senate race. Two candidates named Dan Sullivan competed in the contest to represent the state.

One, Dan S Sullivan, is the state’s incumbent senator and an ally of President Trump.

The other, Dan J Sullivan Jr, is a retired schoolteacher widely rumoured to have been a Democratic plant to draw votes away from the incumbent.

Trump’s Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to prevent Alaska from certifying its election results, claiming the second Sullivan amounted to an attempt to pervert voter choice.

But a federal judge on Sunday dismissed the suit. The Department of Justice has nevertheless pledged to appeal, a prospect all the more likely if Peltola prevails in the vote count.

排序复选制投票可能决定阿拉斯加州参议院的选举结果，而密西西比州的选举结果则难分伯仲。

2026年11月4日，美国密西西比州参议员候选人斯科特·科洛姆在密西西比州杰克逊市向支持者发表讲话。[Rogelio V Solis / Getty Images via AP]

在今年的中期选举中，民主党重新夺回了美国国会两院的控制权，其胜利浪潮被党魁哈基姆·杰弗里斯比作“美国海啸”。

但截至周三晚间，美国参议院两场选举结果仍未确定。

特朗普政府再次试图阻止阿拉斯加州选举结果公布（共4条记录，第1条）

列出阿拉斯加两位“丹·沙利文”中的两位：选票堆砌有多普遍？它真的有效吗？

列表 3/4：什么是排序复选投票制？它在美国选举中是如何运作的？

问题 4（共 4 个）：我们何时才能知道美国中期选举结果？

密西西比州东南部的一场悬念迭起的选举和阿拉斯加州一场丑闻缠身的选举是最后两场参议院选举的计票结果。

就目前情况来看，民主党将在1月3日迎来第120届国会，届时他们将在拥有100个席位的参议院中至少获得54个席位的多数席位。

如果他们拿下密西西比州和阿拉斯加州，他们就只需要更少的共和党议员倒戈就能避免冗长辩论——冗长辩论是少数党无限期阻挠立法的一种手段。只要有60名议员投票通过，就可以避免冗长辩论。

那么，为什么阿拉斯加州和密西西比州的参议院选举结果仍然悬而未决？半岛电视台用这篇简短的解释文章对此进行了分析。

密西西比州那边到底出了什么问题？

今年，共和党的大本营密西西比州出人意料地成为了参议院的争夺战场。

该州上一次投票选举民主党总统候选人是在 1976 年。上一次该州选举民主党人担任全州公职是在十多年前的 2015 年。

但现任参议员辛迪·海德-史密斯（唐纳德·特朗普总统的坚定盟友）与她的民主党挑战者斯科特·科洛姆之间的竞选比预期的要激烈得多。

据美联社报道，选情依然胶着，两位候选人得票率均约为49%。目前已统计了96%的选票。

截至周三晚间，科洛姆以1138票的微弱优势领先海德-史密斯，还有几千张临时选票和邮寄缺席选票尚未清点。

临时选票，也称“宣誓选票”，发放给资格不确定的选民。这种情况可能发生在选民未能向当地投票站出示相应的身份证明文件时。

密西西比州允许此类选票有10天的处理时间。与此同时，据州官员称，邮寄选票的接收期限为选举日后的五个工作日。

密西西比州州务卿迈克尔·沃森周三发表声明称，还有大约 3600 张邮寄选票尚未统计，此外还有数量“未知”的宣誓选票。

沃森写道：“各县必须在选举日后 10 天内（即 11 月 13 日）向我们办公室提交经认证的选举结果。”

如果出现僵局，密西西比州是美国唯一一个没有正式条款自动授权重新计票的州。候选人需要法院命令才能提出重新计票的请求。

我们什么时候才能知道阿拉斯加的选举结果？

由于阿拉斯加州地处西北部，幅员辽阔，且采用排序复选制（RCV），因此该州的参议院选举结果可能需要数天甚至数周才能揭晓。

据美联社报道，截至周三晚，民主党候选人玛丽·佩尔托拉仅以637票的微弱优势领先现任共和党候选人丹·沙利文。

这场选举已成为全国最受关注的选举之一。目前仍有近四分之一的选票尚未清点。

在阿拉斯加，排序复选制选票允许选民按偏好顺序给候选人编号。

但这种制度可能会导致多次计票。首次计票统计的是选民最支持的候选人得票数。如果其中一位候选人获得超过50%的选票，则直接赢得选举。

如果所有候选人得票率均未超过50%，则得票最少的候选人将被淘汰，并开始新一轮计票。被淘汰候选人的支持者所投的票将重新分配给他们的第二选择。

这种排除和重新计票的过程会一直持续到最终有一位候选人获得多数票为止。

阿拉斯加是美国仅有的两个在全州选举中采用排序复选制的州之一，批评人士认为该制度导致计票速度缓慢。

根据阿拉斯加州选举部门的说法，排序复选制选举结果要到选举日后 15 天，也就是 11 月 18 日才会公布。

该州也因参议院选举中的争议而备受关注。两名名叫丹·沙利文的候选人角逐该州的参议员席位。

其中一人是丹·S·沙利文，他是该州的现任参议员，也是特朗普总统的盟友。

另一位候选人丹·J·沙利文二世是一位退休教师，外界普遍认为他是民主党安插的卧底，目的是从现任议员手中夺取选票。

特朗普的司法部提起诉讼，阻止阿拉斯加州认证其选举结果，声称第二次苏利文选举相当于试图歪曲选民的选择。

但周日，一名联邦法官驳回了这起诉讼。尽管如此，司法部仍誓言要提起上诉，如果佩尔托拉在计票中胜出，那么上诉的可能性就更大了。